HC Deb 26 June 1871 vol 207 cc637-9

Order for Committee read.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair."

MR. NEWDEGATE

said, he should like some explanation respecting that measure, which proposed the repeal of about 100 statutes, of which 50 related either to the supremacy, succession, or security of the Crown. It was a Go- vernment Bill, and although it had passed through "another place," he thought the House ought to know on whose authority the proposed repeal was to be granted, in order that it might determine whether several of these unrepealed statutes, said to be obsolete, were really so or not. In 1866 it was urged that the Oath of Allegiance ought to recite the Act of Settlement and the Succession to the Throne. That House thought that the only expression should be "the Sovereign of this country according to law;" but the House of Lords insisted on reciting the Act of Settlement. Two years afterwards an Act passed containing the present Oath of Allegiance; and hon. Members now subscribed the oath to the Sovereign according to law. It appeared to him that several of the repeals in that Bill affected the purport of that oath; and he asked the Government to explain by whom the measure had been prepared, and who it was that had been intrusted with the difficult task of deciding what statutes were to be deemed obsolete? He moved that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee.

MR. CHARLEY

, in seconding the Motion, said, he objected to so large a number of statutes connected with heresy, schism, and præmunire, being repealed by a Bill bearing the title of Promissory Oaths. If it were desirable to repeal the statutes in question, a special Bill ought to be brought in for that purpose.

Amendment proposed, to leave out from the word "That" to the end of the Question, in order to add the words "the Bill be committed to a Select Committee,"—(Mr. Newdegate,)—instead thereof.

Question proposed, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the Question."

THE SOLICITOR GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. DOWSE)

expressed a hope that the Motion would not be pressed to a division, and stated that all the statutes mentioned in the Bill, so far as they related to their respective counties, had been carefully examined by the Law Officers of the Crown for England and Ireland, and also, he believed, by the Lord Advocate. All those statutes had been virtually repealed long ago, though not eo nomine.

MR. WHALLEY

wished to know what was the object of the Government in repealing all these statutes. He believed the object of the Government, as shown by various other Acts during the present Session, was to promote by every means in their power the extension of the Roman Catholic religion. The explanation offered by the Solicitor General for Ireland was by no means satisfactory, and he complained that the Bill would repeal 100 statutes of which he had not the least knowledge. The Home Secretary recently avowed that he felt himself justified in allowing the laws relating to lotteries to be deliberately infringed, and by so doing he had evoked the gambling spirit of the country to the extent of £450,000 in the course of a few years, for the purpose of promoting the Roman Catholic religion.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Main Question, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair," put, and agreed to.

Bill considered in Committee, and reported, without Amendment; to be read the third time upon Thursday.